


Strangers

by BeatriixExtrange



Category: Naruto
Genre: Bitter, F/F, F/M, M/M, Marriage of Convenience, They all deserve better, i'm salty and this came out, sasuke is a dick, sasusaku is a lie, silent ino and naruto comraderie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-04
Updated: 2017-09-04
Packaged: 2018-12-23 15:41:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11992806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeatriixExtrange/pseuds/BeatriixExtrange
Summary: This is just me being bitter and salty at canon.





	Strangers

**Author's Note:**

> This is just me being bitter and salty at canon.

He was supposed to arrive in a couple of days, but here he was. Sasuke wasn’t specially looking forward to going back to Konoha. To Sakura. His  _ wife _ . The word still lay uneasy on his tongue. It had never fitted, but now it was too late. After everything that happened, Sasuke’s only wish was to live quietly. He knew he had to revive the clan Uchiha, if only for his brother, and he needed children for that. She chose Sakura because she was the easy way, the comfortable choice. She knew that, and she had accepted anyway. There was no pretension in their marriage, they both knew what it was when they got into it, but none of them said it out loud. They didn’t admit to the sham their lives had become, and a sham they lived. They loved their daughter, of course, but she wasn’t a child born out of love.

Sasuke stood outside the gates of the village, perched on a branch in the shadows. He summoned a small hawk and let it fly. Naruto would get the message. 

Coming down from the tree, he started walking. It was early morning, but not early enough that anybody would still be home. Sarada would be at school, and Sakura working at the hospital. Hopefully, they’d have a couple hours until any of them came back.

Sasuke arrived at the empty training grounds where he and Naruto usually met. He was the first to get there, but he wasn’t worried. Naruto would come. He always came when Sasuke called him. So he just stood there, waiting, alert in case someone who wasn’t the Hokage came near the place.

Naruto arrived ten minutes later. Sasuke sensed him before he saw him, so he had time to suppress the smile that crept on his face every time he saw the idiot. He couldn’t let him know just how deeply his mere presence affected him.

“Hey, Sasuke!” he greeted when he was close enough for the other to hear him. Sasuke knew there was no one close to them, so he didn’t shush him for talking too loud; Naruto wouldn’t listen to him anyway. He never did.

“Hello” he simply answered, and waited for Naruto to catch up to him before he started walking towards his house.

They didn’t touch each other, but the distance between them was too close to be that of simple friends. They had an unspoken agreement: not in public. Naruto was the hokage, after all, and even if he had never cared about such things as image, Sasuke did, and that was the excuse he always repeated: he had a life. A life, a job, a  _ wife _ . They said those words, once and again, until they believed them, until that little lie fused with the neat order they had so carefully constructed around the lie at the core.

As long as there was order, there was no need to worry.

They didn’t touch each other, but they did look at each other. Furtive glances out of the corner of the eye when they thought the other wasn’t looking, maybe hoping they were so they could see the other’s eyes on them, feel their gaze on theirs’. Sasuke was subtler than Naruto, but his eyes still wandered towards his lips without him even noticing. He couldn’t help but fantasize with them while he was away, and when he came back they were the first thing on his mind.

Only once they had passed the little gate that divided the outside world from the Uchiha house did Naruto dare to take Sasuke’s hand, and not before that. His fingers brushed against the other’s, and Sasuke closed his eyes for a moment, reveling in the sensation. He had missed it so much. He’d missed  _ him _ . Naruto’s hands were softer than his now that only one of them actually did field work. Sasuke liked it, it reminded him of when they were younger and didn’t have to deal with adult stuff like family and work and legacy. They just hit things. Good times.

Sasuke fumbled to find the keys in his bag as Naruto softly nuzzled his nape, sighing against his skin.

“I’ve missed you” he whispered, and it was barely audible, but Sasuke felt it, along with the kiss Naruto placed on his shoulder.

“I know” he replied, as evenly as possible.

Sasuke finally managed to open the door and stepped inside, Naruto trailing close behind him. As soon as the door closed, he pushed the blond against the wall and kissed him ravenously, without giving him a second to breathe, to think, to react. He  _ needed  _ him. He was famished for him, for his scent, his touch, his face. Sasuke kissed him like his life depended on it, and in a way, it did.

“I missed you too” he said, his voice husky from the kiss, his lips only millimeters from Naruto’s.

The blond grabbed Sasuke by the coat and pulled him, joining their lips once again. Too many clothes. There were too many clothes between them. He started undressing Naruto, but it wasn’t easy with one hand, and he soon grew frustrated, giving up with a growl. Naruto chuckled softly, never stopping the kisses, and helped him; first his own clothes, and then Sasuke’s. He discarded his cloak on a nearby table, accidentally knocking over a vase, which fell to the floor and broke into a million pieces. Sasuke barely registered the noise, as enthralled as he was by the man in front of him.

* * *

 

Sakura was floating through a light sleep when she heard the door open and then close. At first she had been too cozy, wrapped in Ino’s arms as she was, to fully care about it, so she let it go. It was probably a stray cat or something. At worst, it was Sarada, who had forgotten something for school. She wouldn’t come up to her room, probably. Definitely. She had nothing to worry about. She snuggled closer to Ino and willed herself to go back to sleep. The alarm hadn’t gone off yet, so it couldn’t be late.

But then she heard another noise, a louder one. It came from downstairs, like glass breaking, and it made her jump out of bed, suddenly alert. Someone was in the house. What time was it? She looked to the side at the clock on the nightstand, her gaze lingering for a second on the sleeping figure still laying on the bed. Ino looked like straight out of a dream, but she was real, and she was there, with her. Finally looking at the time, Sakura sprung to her feet.

“Ino” she whispered with a tinge of urgency in her voice. “Ino, wake up. It’s really late we’ve overslept.”

She heard someone talking downstairs. It was… Sasuke’s voice. Hurriedly taking a shirt from the floor, Sakura leaned out the door of the bedroom.

“Sasuke?” she called, still not completely sure that whoever was in the house was his husband. “Sasuke, is that you?”

She heard some hustle and then an answer. “Sakura, are you home? I thought you’d be at the hospital.”

“Yeah, I wasn’t feeling so good so I stayed home” she lied, throwing some clothes to a still half-asleep Ino. “Get dressed and get out the window; he can’t see you here.”

Ino yawned and rubbed her eyes, clearly not paying attention to her, so Sakura threw a shoe at her lover, who dodged it with ease.

“Okay okay I’m leaving. Geez.” She started getting dressed, trying uselessly to brush her hair with her fingers. Sakura glared at her as she picked up the clothes they had discarded to the floor the night before, pushing them all in the first drawer she could fit them into.

“You’ve arrived early” Sakura shouted so Sasuke could hear her from downstairs. “I thought you wouldn’t be back for another couple of days.”

There was a moment of silence, some rustle and then a voice. “I finished the mission sooner than expected, but I was… tired. I came home so I could sleep.”

By then both women were dressed, and Ino pecked Sakura lightly on the cheek before getting out of the window in complete silence, in a clear show of her ninja abilities. Sakura watched her go for a moment before going downstairs to meet her husband.

* * *

 

“Sasuke? Sasuke, is that you?” came the voice from upstairs, and the man froze.  _ That  _ he did hear, crystal clear. Naruto suddenly stopped kissing him, his face still on Sasuke’s neck, who gently pushed him away. 

“Sakura, are you home? I thought you’d be at the hospital” he said, loud enough to be heard by Sakura.

“Yeah, I wasn’t feeling so good so I stayed home” she answered. Her voice was strained, but he didn’t notice; given the circumstances, Sasuke had more pressing matters to worry about.

He heard Naruto sighing, and turned to him. He was already getting dressed. “I know, I know” Naruto said, before Sasuke could open his mouth. “I have to go now, out the back door, lest someone sees me.” His bitterness permeated through his words, and Sasuke felt a tinge of guilt at that, but it wasn’t enough, so he whispered a quiet thank you. They’d been through this before. Naruto would get over it. He always did.

“You’ve arrived early” Sakura spoke again, interrupting Sasuke’s train of thought. “I thought you wouldn’t be back for another couple of days.”

He was going to answer, but then he saw Naruto leaving out of the corner of the eye and couldn’t bear to leave it like this. He caught up to him and grabbed him by the arm. Naruto turned slowly, slightly surprised by the gesture. Sasuke wasn’t usually one to show what he felt, not in this way. 

He opened his mouth, and Naruto waited, but he didn’t say anything. Naruto sighed and turned to leave once more when Sasuke spoke, just a murmur, almost inaudible. “I’m sorry.” It wasn’t enough, but Naruto was weak when it came to Sasuke, and he knew he would be back as soon as he called. He hated that, and sometimes even hated him.

Without looking back at Sasuke, Naruto left the house.

Sasuke closed his eyes for a moment. Then: “I finished the mission sooner than expected, but I was… tired. I came home so I could sleep” he lied. A couple of seconds later he heard Sakura coming downstairs. By the look of her hair and clothes, she had just got out of bed. Sasuke didn’t move, and Sakura stopped when she saw the broken vase on the floor.

“Oh” he said, noticing it for the first time. “I hadn’t seen it and accidentally broke it. I’ll buy a new one.”

“It doesn’t matter” she answered. Her tone of voice didn’t allow Sasuke to know what she was thinking.

There was an awkward silence. None of them knew what to say.

“I’m going to sleep.” “How was the mission?” They said it at the same time. Sakura hesitated, but Sasuke replied with a dry “the mission was fine” as he headed upstairs to the bedroom. He didn’t even look at her.

* * *

 

Naruto didn’t care if people knew about them, he really didn’t, but Sasuke did, so he was careful as he crossed the alley behind the Uchiha house. He hated how he did so many things for the jerk, he hated how they had to meet in secret, he hated how his whole life was built around a lie. He hated that he wasn’t around more. He hated those tiny details Sasuke did for him, hated how his face lit up every time he saw Naruto, even if he tried to cover it, how he whispered  _ I love you _ s against his naked skin.

He saw something move to his right, and hid in some bushes. The figure kept walking, and Naruto could now see her better. It was Ino, half-dressed, with bed hair and still yawning. She had clearly just woken up. And she came from the same direction Naruto did.  _ Oh _ . He of course knew about Sakura and Ino, but he wasn’t sure Sasuke did, and it wasn’t his place to tell. He had the suspicion Sasuke turned a blind eye to it, for the sake of his perfect lie. Everything was for the sake of his perfect little life.

Naruto stood up from between the bushes. There was no reason to hide. Ino also knew about Sasuke and him. She looked at him and blinked slowly, reaching the same conclusion he had. She made a grimace when she realised Naruto and her were both sneaking out from the Uchiha house.

Neither Naruto nor Ino said a word; they exchanged looks for a moment, smiled bitterly at the situation, and kept walking. Ino turned left, Naruto, right. 

Someday, maybe, they wouldn’t have to go out the back door.


End file.
